December 1, 2011

Wrapped Up

A little cold decided to pencil itself in on my already-full social calendar. Sometimes, I don't mind it when others tag along on my adventures. Other times, I do. This time, I do.

It is now much later than I wanted it to be. I promised myself I'd tuck Channing in, have a cup of tea and head to bed. My bare mantle started glaring at me though. At first it was just an impolite stare. It turned into a full on "aren't you going to do something about this?" that couldn't be ignored.

I know you're out there too, all of you with your yet-to-be-decorated mantles and a stash of fabric that's larger than you care to admit. Hop on my bus. Let's go to school. I've got a quick tutorial for you that will help whittle away at that fabric pile and spruce up your mantle too. We're making fabric trees.

Materials List: Cardboard Cones-various sizes, as many or as few as you wish. Fabric-the large cone took just over half a fat quarter. I guess that would be a fat eighth. Hot glue gun and glue sticks Ramekins-I know. This one's odd. But I glued one to the bottom of one of the cones to make it taller. I could only find cones in two sizes. I wanted three.

Start by tearing your fabric into 1 inch-ish wide strips.

Run a small bead of hot glue down your cone, starting at the tip. You need just enough to hold the end of your fabric strip in place. Without burning your fingers, stick one end of the fabric into the glue and begin wrapping the fabric around the cone.

As you wrap, start twisting the fabric to add texture to your tree. When you get to the end of your fabric strip, tack the end in place with more glue. Grab another fabric strip. Glue the end to the cone where your previous strip ended, overlapping some to ensure good coverage of the cardboard. Continue to twist and wrap and glue until you reach the bottom of the cone. When you're all done, you'll have a tree that looks like this:

I can't decide if they need some yarn garland and a sprinkling of mini jingle bells or pom-poms. Anyone have an opinion they care to share?

I know. Not the best photographs. That's what happens when you start this project at 10 pm. The lighting for pictures is terrible. I'll post more once the entire mantle is done. If it turns out like the vision in my head, it'll be good. I've been working on some Mod-Podge fabric letters too. By the light of the Christmas tree no less. It's a very festive way to work.

OK. My eyelids are really drooping now. The last half inch of my tea has gone cold too. I can feel the chill creeping into the house now that the furnace has kicked down for the night too. That's my signal. My warm cozy bed is calling. Loudly.